On this day in 1909, the NAACP was officially established in New York

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President Barack Obama points as he arrives to give a speech at the NAACP's 106th national convention at the Philadelphia Convention Center, on Tuesday, July 14, 2015, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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The formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was spurred by the devastating race massacre in Springfield, Illinois, in August 1908. The event saw a white mob ravage Black neighborhoods, torch businesses, and commit acts of lynching, leaving two Black men dead and many others injured.

By February 12, 1909, the NAACP was officially established in New York. Its founding members, numbering 60, included prominent individuals from both white abolitionist backgrounds and African-American communities, such as W.E.B. DuBois, Ida B. Wells, and Mary Church Terrell.

The organization’s primary mission is to secure political, educational, social, and economic equality for people of color in the United States while striving to eradicate racial prejudice.


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